str_rot13

str_repeat

Last updated: Fri, 10 Jul 2009

str_replace

(PHP 4, PHP 5)

str_replace — Replace all occurrences of the search string with the replacement string

Description

mixed str_replace ( mixed $search , mixed $replace , mixed $subject [, int &$count ] )

This function returns a string or an array with all occurrences of search in subject replaced with the given replace value.

If you don't need fancy replacing rules (like regular expressions), you should always use this function instead of ereg_replace() or preg_replace().

Parameters

If search and replace are arrays, then str_replace() takes a value from each array and uses them to do search and replace on subject . If replace has fewer values than search , then an empty string is used for the rest of replacement values. If search is an array and replace is a string, then this replacement string is used for every value of search . The converse would not make sense, though.

If search or replace are arrays, their elements are processed first to last.

search
replace
subject: If subject is an array, then the search and replace is performed with every entry of subject , and the return value is an array as well.
count: Note: If passed, this will hold the number of matched and replaced needles.

Return Values

This function returns a string or an array with the replaced values.

Changelog

Version	Description
5.0.0	The `count` parameter was added.
4.3.3	The behaviour of this function changed. In older versions a bug existed when using arrays as both `search` and `replace` parameters which caused empty `search` indexes to be skipped without advancing the internal pointer on the `replace` array. This has been corrected in PHP 4.3.3, any scripts which relied on this bug should remove empty search values prior to calling this function in order to mimic the original behavior.
4.0.5	Most parameters can now be an array.

Examples

Example #1 str_replace() examples


<?php
// Provides: <body text='black'>
$bodytag = str_replace("%body%", "black", "<body text='%body%'>");

// Provides: Hll Wrld f PHP
$vowels = array("a", "e", "i", "o", "u", "A", "E", "I", "O", "U");
$onlyconsonants = str_replace($vowels, "", "Hello World of PHP");

// Provides: You should eat pizza, beer, and ice cream every day
$phrase  = "You should eat fruits, vegetables, and fiber every day.";
$healthy = array("fruits", "vegetables", "fiber");
$yummy   = array("pizza", "beer", "ice cream");

$newphrase = str_replace($healthy, $yummy, $phrase);

// Use of the count parameter is available as of PHP 5.0.0
$str = str_replace("ll", "", "good golly miss molly!", $count);
echo $count; // 2

// Order of replacement
$str     = "Line 1\nLine 2\rLine 3\r\nLine 4\n";
$order   = array("\r\n", "\n", "\r");
$replace = '<br />';
// Processes \r\n's first so they aren't converted twice.
$newstr = str_replace($order, $replace, $str);

// Outputs: apearpearle pear
$letters = array('a', 'p');
$fruit   = array('apple', 'pear');
$text    = 'a p';
$output  = str_replace($letters, $fruit, $text);
echo $output;
?>

Notes

Note: This function is binary-safe.

Note: This function is case-sensitive. Use str_ireplace() for case-insensitive replace.


Be careful when replacing characters (or repeated patterns in the FROM and TO arrays):





For example:





<?php


$arrFrom = array("1","2","3","B");


$arrTo = array("A","B","C","D");


$word = "ZBB2";


echo str_replace($arrFrom, $arrTo, $word);


?>





I would expect as result: "ZDDB"


However, this return: "ZDDD"


(Because B = D according to our array)





To make this work, use "strtr" instead:





<?php


$arr = array("1" => "A","2" => "B","3" => "C","B" => "D");


$word = "ZBB2";


echo strtr($word,$arr);


?>





This returns: "ZDDB"

moz667 at gmail dot com
21-May-2009 04:49


<?php


/*


This is a function for made recursive str_replaces in an array


*/


function recursive_array_replace($find, $replace, &$data) {


    if (is_array($data)) {


        foreach ($data as $key => $value) {


            if (is_array($value)) {


                recursive_array_replace($find, $replace, $data[$key]);


            } else {


                $data[$key] = str_replace($find, $replace, $value);


            }


        }


    } else {


        $data = str_replace($find, $replace, $data);


    }


}





$a = array();


$a['a'] = "a";


$a['b']['a'] = "ba";


$a['b']['b'] = "bb";


$a['c'] = "c";


$a['d']['a'] = "da";


$a['d']['b'] = "db";


$a['d']['c'] = "dc";


$a['d']['d'] = "dd";





echo "Before Replaces";


print_r($a);





recursive_array_replace("a", "XXXX", $a);





echo "After Replaces";


print_r($a);


?>

Anonymous
13-May-2009 05:25


I create a little function to transform "User@example.net" [to] "user AT example DOT net" and conversely.





<?php


function code_mail($email) {


    if(preg_match('`^.+@.+\..{1,5}$`', $email)) { //email format


        $email = str_replace('.', ' DOT ', $email); //replace . by dot


        $email = str_replace('@', ' AT ', $email); //replace @ by at


        return $email;


    }        


    else { //not email format


        return false;


    }


}


function decode_mail($email) { //on décode...


    $email = str_replace(' DOT ', '.', $email); //replace dot by .


    $email = str_replace(' AT ', '@', $email); //replace at by @


    return $email;


} 


?>

Dany Alejandro Cabrera
20-Mar-2009 02:03


This is a function that filters a filename for nicer URLs. It doesn't turn the whole filename to lowercase (easy mod):





<?php


/*


 * Devuelve el nombre del archivo filtrado de la siguiente manera:


 * Los espacios sustituidos por '-'


 * Los acentos se quitan de las vocales


 * 'n' en vez de 'ñ'


 * Cualquier otro caracter especial diferente de ('_', '-', '.') se elimina


*/


function preparar_nom_archivo($nom_archivo)


{


    $arr_busca = array(' ','á','à','â','ã','ª','Á','À',


    'Â','Ã', 'é','è','ê','É','È','Ê','í','ì','î','Í',


    'Ì','Î','ò','ó','ô', 'õ','º','Ó','Ò','Ô','Õ','ú',


    'ù','û','Ú','Ù','Û','ç','Ç','Ñ','ñ');


    $arr_susti = array('-','a','a','a','a','a','A','A',


    'A','A','e','e','e','E','E','E','i','i','i','I','I',


    'I','o','o','o','o','o','O','O','O','O','u','u','u',


    'U','U','U','c','C','N','n');


    $nom_archivo = trim(str_replace($arr_busca, $arr_susti, $nom_archivo));


    return ereg_replace('[^A-Za-z0-9\_\.\-]', '', $nom_archivo);


}


?>





(you may delete the line breaks in the arrays) Sorry for the spanish. In english: Substitutes spaces with '-', accents turn into vocals, 'ñ' to 'n', deletes weird characters except ('_', '-', '.').





Cheers

Jorge Garza
24-Feb-2009 01:58


In order to create nicer urls i use this simple function:





<?php


function niceURL($string)


    {


$que = array( 'á','é','í','ó','ú','Á','É','Í','Ó','Ú','ñ','Ñ',' ' );


$por = array( 'a','e','i','o','u','A','E','I','O','U','n','n','-' );


  return strtolower( str_replace( $que,$por,$string ) );


    }


?>





For string "Hello Cruel World"


This will return "hello-cruel-world"





However once i wrote this:





<?php


function niceURL($string)


    {


 //changing the place of ' ' by '-' to the begining


$que = array( ' ','á','é','í','ó','ú','Á','É','Í','Ó','Ú','ñ','Ñ' );


$por = array( '-','a','e','i','o','u','A','E','I','O','U','n','n' );


  return strtolower( str_replace( $que,$por,$string ) );


    }


?>





And for "Hello Cruel World"


This will return "hellocruelworld"





I have no idea why but it made me crazy for a while,

n0name
08-Feb-2009 09:41


simple bbcode



<?php



function bbcode($msg){

    //bold

    $msg = str_replace("[b]", "<b>", $msg);

    $msg = str_replace("[/b]", "</b>", $msg);

    //italic

    $msg = str_replace("[i]", "<i>", $msg);

    $msg = str_replace("[/i]", "</i>", $msg);

    //image

    $msg = str_replace("[img]", "<img src=\"", $msg);

    $msg = str_replace("[/img]", "\" />", $msg);

    #$msg = str_replace("", "", $msg);

    return ($msg);

}



?>

thomas at tgohome dot com
03-Feb-2009 10:16


For those wanting a quick solution to replacing a string a certain number of times, starting from the left, this might be a solution:



<?php

echo implode("replace term", explode("search term", "input", $limit));

?>



Hope this helps.

michael dot moussa at gmail dot com
29-Jan-2009 02:38


As previous commentators mentioned, when $search contains values that occur earlier in $replace, str_replace will factor those previous replacements into the process rather than operating solely on the original string.  This may produce unexpected output.



Example:



<?php

$search = array('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E');

$replace = array('B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F');

$subject = 'ABCDE';



echo str_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: 'FFFFFF'

?>



In the above code, the $search and $replace should replace each occurrence in the $subject with the next letter in the alphabet.  The expected output for this sample is 'BCDEF'; however, the actual output is 'FFFFF'.



To more clearly illustrate this, consider the following example:



<?php

$search = array('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E');

$replace = array('B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F');

$subject = 'A';



echo str_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: 'F'

?>



Since 'A' is the only letter in the $search array that appears in $subject, one would expect the result to be 'B'; however, replacement number $n does *not* operate on $subject, it operates on $subject after the previous $n-1 replacements have been completed.



The following function utilizes array_combine and strtr to produce the expected output, and I believe it is the most efficient way to perform the desired string replacement without prior replacements affecting the final result.



<?php

/**

* When using str_replace(...), values that did not exist in the original string (but were put there by previous

* replacements) will be replaced continuously.  This string replacement function is designed replace the values

* in $search with those in $replace while not factoring in prior replacements.  Note that this function will

* always look for the longest possible match first and then work its way down to individual characters.

*

* The "o" in "stro_replace" represents "original", indicating that the function operates only on the original string.

*

* @param array $search list of strings or characters that need to be replaced

* @param array $replace list of strings or characters that will replace the corresponding values in $search

* @param string $subject the string on which this operation is being performed

*

* @return string $subject with all substrings in the $search array replaced by the values in the $replace array

*/

function stro_replace($search, $replace, $subject)

{

    return strtr( $subject, array_combine($search, $replace) );

}



$search = array('A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E');

$replace = array('B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F');

$subject = 'ABCDE';



echo stro_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: 'BCDEF'

?>



Some other examples:



<?php

$search = array(' ', '&');

$replace = array('&nbsp;', '&amp;');

$subject = 'Hello & goodbye!';



// We want to replace the spaces with &nbsp; and the ampersand with &amp;

echo str_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: "Hello&amp;nbsp&amp;&amp;nbspgoodbye!" - wrong!



echo stro_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: "Hello&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;goodbye!" - correct!



/*

    Note:  Run the above code in the CLI or view source on your web browser - the replacement strings for stro_replace are HTML entities which the browser interprets.

*/

?>



<?php

$search = array('ERICA', 'AMERICA');

$replace = array('JON', 'PHP');

$subject = 'MIKE AND ERICA LIKE AMERICA';



// We want to replace the name "ERICA" with "JON" and the word "AMERICA" with "PHP"

echo str_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: "MIKE AND JON LIKE AMJON", which is not correct



echo stro_replace($search, $replace, $subject); // output: "MIKE AND JON LIKE PHP", which is correct

?>

robbiesmith79 at gmail dot com
12-Jan-2009 03:35


Came across a difference between Excel 2003 vs Excel 2007 documents and the different formats they push out csv files. 





In 2007, the format pushes out the chr(13) instead of the \n in 2003.





Just as a safety precaution, do a quick replace on the fread contents from the excel file :-)





<?php


$lineseparator = "\n";





// check for the user supplied list type format


if ($_REQUEST['listtype'] == "csv")


    $fieldseparator = ",";


elseif ($_REQUEST["listtype"] == "tab")


    $fieldseparator = "\t";





// replaces the carriage return with the \n character


$csvcontent = str_replace(chr(13), $lineseparator,$csvcontent);





// then 


foreach(split($lineseparator,$csvcontent) as $line) {


    $lines++;


    if ($lines >1) { // skips header row


        $line = trim($line," \t");


        $line = str_replace("\r","",$line);





        // split the line up


        $linearray = explode($fieldseparator,$line);


                            


        // take care of The "Billy" the kid issue


        for ($x = 0; $x<sizeof($linearray); $x++) {


            $linearray[$x] = str_replace('""','^',$linearray[$x]);


            $linearray[$x] = str_replace('""','^',$linearray[$x]);


            $linearray[$x] = str_replace('"','',$linearray[$x]);


            $linearray[$x] = str_replace('"','',$linearray[$x]);


            $linearray[$x] = str_replace('^','"',$linearray[$x]);


        }





        // then reference each element in order of the line by array and key


        // echo $linearray[0]; //, etc.





    }





}


?>





Happy Coding!

php at katamari dot com dot br
09-Jan-2009 06:27


I´ve just made gabriel dot totoliciu at ddnet dot ro's function a little smaller, hope you like it.





NOTE: this function is not 100% secure, since the subject can have the temp replace





<?php





function stru_replace($search, $replace, $subject){


    if(!is_array($search)) { 


        $search = array($search);


    } 


    


    if(!is_array($replace)){


        $replace = array($replace);


    }


    


    foreach($search as $key => $value){


        //used "|{}#PHP_IsAwesome" to try make the temp replace secure, the bigger the better


        $subject = str_replace($value, "|{}#PHP_IsAwesome".$key."|{}#PHP_IsAwesome", $subject);


    }


    


    foreach($search as $key => $value){


        $subject = str_replace("|{}#PHP_IsAwesome".$key."|{}#PHP_IsAwesome", $replace[$key], $subject);


    }        





    return($subject);


}


?>

Daniel Vidal
07-Dec-2008 12:48


Substituindo caracteres acentuados em uma string (português)



If you need change portugues chars to ansi chars, try this



$com_acentos=array(

    "á","Á","ã","Ã",

    "â","Â","à","À",

    "é","É","ê","Ê",

    "í","Í","ó","Ó",

    "õ","Õ","ô","Ô",

    "ú","Ú","ü","Ü",

    "ç","Ç");

$sem_acentos=array(

    "a","A","a","A",

    "a","A","a","A",

    "e","E","e","E",

    "i","I","o","O",

    "o","O","o","O",

    "u","U","u","U",

    "c","C");



$input_string  = 'Ações em Alta. Série positiva:[áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚçÇ]';

$output_string = str_replace($com_acentos,$sem_acentos,$input_string);



echo 'input_string : ' . $input_string  . " <br />\n";

echo 'output_string: ' . $output_string . " <br />\n";



-------------------

Your will get:



input_string : Ações em Alta. Série positiva:[áéíóúÁÉÍÓÚçÇ]

output_string: Acoes em Alta. Serie positiva:[aeiouAEIOUcC]

gabriel dot totoliciu at ddnet dot ro
07-Dec-2008 03:30


As 'max at efoxdesigns dot com' said, when you try to replace a string that occurs in the $search array after the same character occurs in the $replace character, you don't usually get what you want.



examples:



<?php

$search=array("beer", "graffiti", "programming");

$replace=array("graffiti", "motorcycles", "chips");

$string="I like beer, graffiti and programming.";



var_dump(str_replace($search, $replace, $string));

// you would expect to see:

// string(39) "I like graffiti, motorcycles and chips."



// well.. what you actually see is:

// string(42) "I like motorcycles, motorcycles and chips."



?>



I've made a function (stru_replace) that replaces everything correctly. It has some downsides, as it does not implement all the functionality of str_replace:



<?php

$search=array("beer", "graffiti", "programming");

$replace=array("graffiti", "motorcycles", "chips");

$string="I like beer, graffiti and programming.";



var_dump(str_replace($search, $replace, $string));

//string(39) "I like graffiti, motorcycles and chips."

?>



I'm sure that the functions can be improved. Anyway, I guess they are a bit useful :D



<?php

//returns the key of the minimum value within the array

function minkey($array)

{

$first=true;

$mkey=false;

$mvalue=false;



foreach($array as $key=>$value)

    {

    if (is_numeric($value))

        {

        if ($mvalue>$value || $first)

            {

            $mvalue=$value;

            $mkey=$key;

            if ($first) $first=false;

            }

        }

    }

    

return $mkey;

}



//returns the key and the position of the first needle found withing the (string)haystack

function strposfirst($haystack, $needles, $currentpos=0)

{

$positions=array();

foreach($needles as $key=>$value)

    $positions[$key]=strpos($haystack,$value,$currentpos);



$minkey=minkey($positions);

if ($minkey===false) return array(false, false);

return array($minkey, $positions[$minkey]);

}



//third parameter must be a string

function stru_replace($search, $replace, $string)

{

$newString="";



// the function only implements functionality for the $search and $replace parameters

// as arrays that have the same ammount of elements

if (is_array($search) && is_array($replace))

    {

    if (count($search)!=count($replace))

        throw new ErrorException("The \$search and \$replace parameters must have the same number of elements");



    $oCPos=0; // current position inside old string

    $done=false; // determines when we searched all the string

    

    while(!$done)

        {

        //get the key and position of the first found element

        list($key, $position)=strposfirst($string, $search, $oCPos);

        

        //if there is a found element, get concatenate the string before it, and replace the string

        if ($position!==false)

            {

            // the string before the needle is concatenated in the new string

            $newString.=substr($string, $oCPos, $position-$oCPos);

            

            // the needle is replaced

            $newString.=$replace[$key];

            

            //add the with of the length of the string before the needle + the length of the new key

            $oCPos+=$position-$oCPos+strlen($search[$key]);

            }

        //set the done flag when nothing is found (position is false)

        else $done=true;

        }

    

    //concatenate the string after the last needle

    $newString.=substr($string, $oCPos);

    return $newString;

    }

else return str_replace($search, $replace, $string);

}

?>



I hope this helps :)

If I'll change the functions, you'll find them here

http://pb.dev.ddnet.ro/phpLecture/issue1.php

nospam at nospam dot com
02-Dec-2008 10:55


Replacement for str_replace in which a multiarray of numerically keyed data can be properly evaluated with the given template without having a search for 11 be mistaken for two 1's next to each other





<?php





function data_template($input, $template) {


  if ($template) { // template string


    if ($split = str_split($template)) { // each char as array member


      foreach ($split as $char) { // each character


        if (is_numeric($char)) { // test for digit


          if ($s != 1) { // new digit sequence


            $i++;


            $s = 1;


          }


          $digits[$i] .= $char; // store digit


        } else { // not a digit


          if ($s != 2) { // new non-digit sequence


            $i++;


            $s = 2;


          }


          $strings[$i] .= $char; // store string


        }


      }


      if ($i && $input && is_array($input)) { // input data


        foreach ($input as $sub) { // each subarray


          if (is_array($sub)) {


            $out = ''; // reset output


            for ($j = 0; $j <= $i; $j++) { // each number/string member


              if ($number = $digits[$j]) { // number


                $out .= $sub[$number]; // add value from subarray to output


              } else { // string


                $out .= $strings[$j]; // add to output


              }


            }


            $a[] = $out;


          }


        }


        return $a;


      } // input


    } // split


  } // template


}





$input = array(array(1=>'yellow', 2=>'banana', 11=>'fruit'), array(1=>'green', 2=>'spinach', 11=>'vegetable'), array(1=>'pink', 2=>'salmon', 11=>'fish'));





print_r (data_template($input, '2: a 1, healthy 11'));





/*


Array


(


    [0] => banana: a yellow, healthy fruit


    [1] => spinach: a green, healthy vegetable


    [2] => salmon: a pink, healthy fish


)


*/





// str_replace would have wanted to output 'banana: a yellow, healthy yellowyellow





?>





Not sure if this will help anyone but I wrote it for my application and thought I would share just in case

Konstantin
29-Oct-2008 11:01


Well, suffering without parameter replace ability like in plsql


sql = > "select * from x where id = %1";


execute sql, var1;


(sorry for pseudo)





here is a function just wrote for my self using str_replace, let me know if there is a better way for such generic function





<?php


function sql_prep()


{


        $args = func_get_args();


        $sql = array_shift($args);


        $args_cnt = func_num_args();


        $found=0;


        foreach($args as $key=>$value)


        {


                $rep_str =  "\$sql = str_replace('%$key','$value',\$sql,\$count);";


                eval($rep_str);


                if($count)


                {


                        $found++;


                }


        }


        if($found == $args_cnt-1)


        {


                return $sql;


        }


        else


        {


                echo "WARNING: number of subs=".($args_cnt-1)." does not match number of reps=$found";


                return $sql;


        }


}


?>

tchapin at gmail dot com
16-Oct-2008 06:42


<?php



    // Function used to "Genderize" a phrase, replacing "[he]" with "she", if gender is female,

    // and "[he]" with "he" if gender is male, and "[she]" with "he" if gender is male, etc...

    function GenderizePhrase($Phrase='', $Gender="male"){

        $SearchValues = array(

            "[He]",

            "[he]",

            "[He's]",

            "[he's]",

            "[She]",

            "[she]",

            "[She's]",

            "[she's]",

            "[Him]",

            "[him]",

            "[Her]",

            "[her]",

            "[His]",

            "[his]",

            "[Hers]",

            "[hers]",

            "[Her's]",

            "[her's]",

            "[Himself]",

            "[himself]",

            "[Herself]",

            "[Herself]"

        );

        if($Gender=="Male" ||$Gender=="male" || $Gender == 1){

            // Replace phrase pieces with male versions

            $ReplacementValues = array(

                "He",

                "he",

                "He's",

                "he's",

                "He",

                "he",

                "He's",

                "he's",

                "Him",

                "him",

                "His",

                "his",

                "His",

                "his",

                "His",

                "his",

                "His",

                "his",

                "Himself",

                "himself",

                "Himself",

                "himself"

            );

        }else{

            // Replace phrase pieces with female versions

            $ReplacementValues = array(

                "She",

                "she",

                "She's",

                "she's",

                "She",

                "she",

                "She's",

                "she's",

                "Her",

                "her",

                "Her",

                "her",

                "Hers",

                "hers",

                "Hers",

                "hers",

                "Her's",

                "her's",

                "Herself",

                "herself",

                "Herself",

                "Herself"

            );

        }

        return str_replace($SearchValues, $ReplacementValues, $Phrase);

    }



?>

lewdew at lycos dot co dot kr(LEE, EUN WOO)
16-Oct-2008 05:49


This function is made in order to slove the problem when using conventional str_replace built-in function when inserting tags in normal string.





<?php


$what : string to be matched wholly


$where : string to be searched in


$tag_open : opening tag string such as <font color=#123456>


$tag_close : closing tag string such as </font>





function str_html_addtag($what, $where, $tag_open, $tag_close)


{


    $array_pos_begin = array();


    $array_pos_end = array();


    for($cnt=0; $cnt<sizeof($what); $cnt++)


    {


        $pos = 0;


        $pos_start = $pos;


        while($pos = stripos($where, $what[$cnt], $pos))//stripos - case-insensitive search


       {


           if(is_false($pos)) break;


           array_push($array_pos_begin, $pos);


           array_push($array_pos_end, $pos+strlen($what[$cnt]));


           if(sizeof($array_pos_begin)>10) break;


           $pos++;


       }


    }


    array_multisort($array_pos_begin, $array_pos_end);


    for($i=0; $i<sizeof($array_pos_begin)-1; $i++)


    {


        if($array_pos_end[$i]>=$array_pos_begin[$i+1])


        {


    $array_pos_end[$i] = max($array_pos_end[$i], $array_pos_end[$i+1]);


    array_splice($array_pos_begin, $i+1, -(sizeof($array_pos_begin)-($i+2)));


    array_splice($array_pos_end, $i+1, -(sizeof($array_pos_end)-($i+2)));


    $i--;


        }


    }


    for($i=sizeof($array_pos_begin)-1; $i>=0; $i--)


    {


        $head = substr($where, 0, $array_pos_end[$i]);


        $tail = substr($where, $array_pos_end[$i]);


        $where = $head.$tag_close.$tail;





        $head = substr($where, 0, $array_pos_begin[$i]);


        $tail = substr($where, $array_pos_begin[$i]);


        $where = $head.$tag_open.$tail;


    }


    return $where;


}


?>

nick at NOSPAM dot pitchinteractive dot com
06-Oct-2008 11:12


I tried max at efoxdesigns dot com solution for str_replace_once but it didn't work quite right so I came up with this solution (all params must be strings):



<?php

function str_replace_once($search, $replace, $subject) {

    $firstChar = strpos($subject, $search);

    if($firstChar !== false) {

        $beforeStr = substr($subject,0,$firstChar);

        $afterStr = substr($subject, $firstChar + strlen($search));

        return $beforeStr.$replace.$afterStr;

    } else {

        return $subject;

    }

}

?>

Mohammad Dayyan
25-Sep-2008 02:19


Changing English number with Persian number



<?php

function farsi_number($input)

{

  $englishNumber=

       array("0","1","2","3","4","5","6","7","8","9");

  $persianNumber=

       array("۰","۱","۲","۳","۴","۵","۶","۷","۸","۹");

  return str_replace($englishNumber, 

       $persianNumber, $input);

}

?>

paolo A T doppioclick D O T com
05-Sep-2008 11:15


For PHP 4 < 4.4.5 and PHP 5 < 5.2.1 you may occur (like me) in this bug:



http://www.php-security.org/MOPB/MOPB-39-2007.html

marco dot carvalho at onda dot com dot br
29-Aug-2008 06:54


If you need to replace áóíóú and other special char, you need encondig type suport.



For this, just use htmlentities and some regular expressions



<?PHP



function RemoveAcentos($str, $enc = "UTF-8"){



$acentos = array(

    'A' => '/&Agrave;|&Aacute;|&Acirc;|&Atilde;|&Auml;|&Aring;/',

    'a' => '/&agrave;|&aacute;|&acirc;|&atilde;|&auml;|&aring;/',

    'C' => '/&Ccedil;/',

    'c' => '/&ccedil;/',

    'E' => '/&Egrave;|&Eacute;|&Ecirc;|&Euml;/',

    'e' => '/&egrave;|&eacute;|&ecirc;|&euml;/',

    'I' => '/&Igrave;|&Iacute;|&Icirc;|&Iuml;/',

    'i' => '/&igrave;|&iacute;|&icirc;|&iuml;/',

    'N' => '/&Ntilde;/',

    'n' => '/&ntilde;/',

    'O' => '/&Ograve;|&Oacute;|&Ocirc;|&Otilde;|&Ouml;/',

    'o' => '/&ograve;|&oacute;|&ocirc;|&otilde;|&ouml;/',

    'U' => '/&Ugrave;|&Uacute;|&Ucirc;|&Uuml;/',

    'u' => '/&ugrave;|&uacute;|&ucirc;|&uuml;/',

    'Y' => '/&Yacute;/',

    'y' => '/&yacute;|&yuml;/',

    'a.' => '/&ordf;/',

    'o.' => '/&ordm;/'

);



return preg_replace($acentos, array_keys($acentos), htmlentities($str,ENT_NOQUOTES, $enc));



}

?>

max at efoxdesigns dot com
06-Aug-2008 08:13


I'm sorry.  I can't believe it: I messed up again.  Something that I forgot is that the php empty() function considers the number zero (0) as an empty value.  Therefore, we need to change our if statement to the following:

<?php

if ($i[0] !== null) $subject .= $replace[$i[0]];

?>

If we left it how it was, the replace ignores the first element of the arrays. ($array[0])



The reason that I used !empty() before, is that I wasn't sure what array_keys() returns if the element is not found (null? and empty string?), since both null and the empty string print out the same and I couldn't find what it returned in this case, in the manual.



The final, working function would look like:

<?php

function str_replace_once($search, $replace, $subject) {

    $newArr = str_split($subject);

    $subject = '';

    foreach ($newArr as $nchar)

    {

        $i = array_keys($search, $nchar);

        if ($i[0] !== null) $subject .= $replace[$i[0]];

        else $subject .= $nchar;

    }

    return $subject;

}

?>

max at efoxdesigns dot com
06-Aug-2008 07:28


Sorry, folks. That last note I put up won't work quite correctly. Unlike str_replace(), that snippet I showed you will replace any characters that aren't in your $search array with an empty string.

To correct this behavior, add this check to the foreach loop:

<?php

    //...

    if (!empty($i[0])) $subject .= $replace[$i[0]];

    else $subject .= $nchar; //now, if the search character isn't found (ie, we don't care about it), it will stay the same, instead of getting replaced by an empty string.

?>

The whole thing would look like the following, if you were to put it into a function:

<?php

function char_replace_once($search, $replace, $subject) {

    $newArr = str_split($subject);

    $subject = '';

    foreach ($newArr as $nchar)

    {

        $i = array_keys($search, $nchar);

        if (!empty($i[0])) $subject .= $replace[$i[0]];

        else $subject .= $nchar;

    }

    return $subject;

}

?>

I'm sure it may not be as efficient as str_replace(), but it successfully replaces characters, correctly.



ONE OTHER IMPORTANT THING TO NOTE: Unlike I said before, this will only work for character replacement - not string replacement. The reason, of course, is that the original string gets split into an array, who's members are only one character. Sorry about that.

That drawback aside, though, this is still a useful function for doing complete, accurate character replacement.

max at efoxdesigns dot com
06-Aug-2008 06:29


Note that the str_replace() function is recursive. This is not usually a problem, unless you are trying to do a replace in which a character or string occurs in the $search array, after the same character or string occurs in the $replace array. (For instance, imagine doing a global character replace.)

To demonstrate, take a look at the folowing:

<?php

$search = array('q','w','e','r','t','y','u');

$replace = array('z','s','d','e','y','f','g');

$mystring = 'qwertyu';



//Outputs: zsdeffg

echo str_replace($search, $replace, $mystring);

?>

As you would expect, the q gets replaced by a z, the w by an s, and so on. Everything is correct, except that the t doesn't seem to have been replaced by a y. This is not entirely true, however. What happened is that it did, indeed get replaced by a y, but then on the next pass of the str_replace() function, str_replace() found a y and replaced it with an f.



To get this to work as we'd like (every letter in the $search array replaced by the cooresponding spot in the $replace array), we can do something like the following:

<?php

$search = array('q','w','e','r','t','y','u');

$replace = array('z','s','d','e','y','f','g');

$mystring = 'qwertyu';



//Outputs: zsdeffg (Not what we wanted.)

echo str_replace($search, $replace, $mystring);



$newArr = str_split($mystring); //split $mystring into an array of characters. For php4, you'll have to create the str_split() function.

$newstring = '';

foreach ($newArr as $nchar)

{

    $i = array_keys($replace, $nchar); //get the key(s) in the $search array for the character we're replacing. (we assume it occurs only once.) Returns an array of length, 1.

    $newstring .= $replace[$i[0]]; //find the character in the $replace array that matches the position of the one we're replacing, and add it to $newstring. 

}



//Outputs: zsdeyfg

echo $newstring;

?>

This time, as you can see, there is a y in place of the t, which was what we wanted. :)

Hope that clears up any confusion for anyone wondering why their strings aren't getting replaced as they'd expect.

troy at troyonline dot com
23-Jun-2008 05:18


Yet another deep replace function:



<?php

    function str_replace_deep( $search, $replace, $subject)

    {

        $subject = str_replace( $search, $replace, $subject);



        foreach ($subject as &$value)

            is_array( $value) and $value =str_replace_deep( $search, $replace, $value);

            

        return $subject;

    }

?>

jaimthorn at yahoo dot com
20-Jun-2008 11:52


On the 19th of June, 2008, max at bitsonnet dot com posted a function interpolate that used create_function. I'd never seen create_function before and I thought it was very educational.  Thanks, Maxim!



However, the interpolate function can be improved, speed-wise:



<?php



function interpolate2($template, $hash, $prefix = '#{', $postfix = '}')

{

    $tmp = array();

    foreach($hash as $k => $v)

    {

        $tmp[$prefix . $k . $postfix] = $v;

    }



    return str_replace(array_keys($tmp), array_values($tmp), $template);

}



echo interpolate2('Hello, #{username}. Welcome to #{site}.', array('username' => 'World', 'site' => 'php.net'));



?>



According to my own tests, this version is somewhere between 4 and 5 times faster.



Note, btw, that I used a very similar function on the sprintf page.

max at bitsonnet dot com
19-Jun-2008 09:00


I always miss interpolate functionality in PHP, so I wrote this little helper method. It allows you to specify your own markup using $prefix and $postfix.



<?php



#  Interpolate a string using hash.

#  by Maxim Chernyak ( http://mediumexposure.com )



function interpolate($template, $hash, $prefix = '#{', $postfix = '}' ) {

    $tokenize = create_function('$token', 'return "'. $prefix .'".$token."'.$postfix.'";');

    $keys = array_keys($hash);

    $values = array_values($hash);

    $keys = array_map($tokenize, $keys);

        

    return str_replace($keys, $values, $template);

}



?>



For example:



<?php

    $result = interpolate('Hello, #{username}. Welcome to #{site}.', array('username' => 'Hakunin', 'site' => 'php.net'));

?>

cclarkson at htcomp dot net
27-Apr-2008 10:32


The example presented by bladescope at googlemail dot com has a couple of syntax errors. This works:



<?php

    $template = "The {color} {object} is in {location}";

    $array = array(

        '{object}'    => 'Ball',

        '{color}'     => 'Red',

        '{location}'  => 'The Playground',

    );

    foreach ($array as $search => $replace) {

        $template = str_replace($search, $replace, $template);

    }

    print $template;

?>



I did not check it for speed or thoroughly test it, but this function seems to do the same thing more succinctly.



<?php

    function template($array, $template) {

        return str_replace(

            array_keys($array),

            array_values($array),

            $template

        );

    }



    echo template(

         array(

            '{color}'     => 'red',

            '{object}'    => 'ball',

            '{location}'  => 'the playground',

        ),

        'The {color} {object} is in {location}.'

    );

?>

David Gimeno i Ayuso (info at sima dot cat)
09-Aug-2007 07:50


This is the functions I wrote for the problem reported above, str_replace in multi-dimensional arrays. It can work with preg_replace as well.





<?php


function array_replace($SEARCH,$REPLACE,$INPUT) {


  if (is_array($INPUT) and count($INPUT)<>count($INPUT,1)):


    foreach($INPUT as $FAN):


      $OUTPUT[]=array_replace($SEARCH,$REPLACE,$FAN);


    endforeach;


  else:


    $OUTPUT=str_replace($SEARCH,$REPLACE,$INPUT);


  endif;


  return $OUTPUT;


}


?>

David Gimeno i Ayuso (info at sima dot cat)
09-Aug-2007 07:22


With PHP 4.3.1, at least, str_replace works fine when working with single arrays but mess it all with two or more dimension arrays.



<?php

$subject = array("You should eat this","this","and this every day.");

$search  = "this";

$replace = "that";

$new     = str_replace($search, $replace, $subject);



print_r($new); // Array ( [0] => You should eat that [1] => that [2] => and that every day. )



echo "<hr />";



$subject = array(array("first", "You should eat this")

                ,array("second","this")

                ,array("third", "and this every day."));

$search  = "this";

$replace = "that";

$new     = str_replace($search, $replace, $subject);



print_r($new); // Array ( [0] => Array [1] => Array [2] => Array )



?>

mjaque at ilkebenson dot com
22-Jul-2007 08:28


In order to replace carriage return characters from form inputs, if everything else fails, you can try:



<?php

$new_text = str_replace(chr(13).chr(10), '_', $original_text);

?>



And in order to show the line feeds in a javascript alert, you can do:



<?php

$new_text = str_replace(chr(13).chr(10), '\n', $original_text);

?>

cm at k-a-p dot com
13-Jun-2007 01:47


Here is a version that allows for empty multidimensional arrays:





<?php


function str_replace_array ($search, $replace, $subject) {


    if (is_array($subject)) {


        foreach ($subject as $id=>$inner_subject) {


            $subject[$id]=str_replace_array($search, $replace, $inner_subject);


        }


    } else {


        $subject=str_replace($search, $replace, $subject);


    }


    return $subject;


}


?>

tim at hysniu dot com
05-Jun-2007 06:27


I found that having UTF-8 strings in as argument didnt 

work for me using heavyraptors function. 

Adding UTF-8 as argument on htmlentities 

fixed the problem.



cheers, tim at hysniu.com



<?php

function replace_accents($str) {

  $str = htmlentities($str, ENT_COMPAT, "UTF-8");

  $str = preg_replace(

'/&([a-zA-Z])(uml|acute|grave|circ|tilde);/',

'$1',$str);

  return html_entity_decode($str);

}



?>

kole
26-Feb-2007 01:48


My input is MS Excel file but I want to save ‘,’,“,” as ',',",".



    $badchr        = array(

        "\xc2", // prefix 1

        "\x80", // prefix 2

        "\x98", // single quote opening

        "\x99", // single quote closing

        "\x8c", // double quote opening

        "\x9d"  // double quote closing

    );

        

    $goodchr    = array('', '', '\'', '\'', '"', '"');

        

    str_replace($badchr, $goodchr, $strFromExcelFile);



Works for me.

rlee0001 at sbcglobal dot net
16-Feb-2007 08:30


This is a more rigid alternative to spectrereturns at creaturestoke dot com's replace_different function:



<?php



        function str_replace_many ($search, $replacements, $subject) {

            $index = strlen($subject);

            $replacements = array_reverse($replacements);



            if (count($replacements) != substr_count($subject, $search)) {

                return FALSE;

            }



            foreach ($replacements as $replacement) {

                $index = strrpos(substr($subject, 0, $index), $search);

                $prefix = substr($subject, 0, $index);

                $suffix = substr($subject, $index + 1);

                $subject = $prefix . $replacement . $suffix;

            }



            return $subject;

        }

?>



This will return false if there are a different number of $replacements versus number of occurrences of $search in $subject. Additionally, $search much be exactly one character (if a string is provided, only the first character in the string will be used). Examples:



<?php

        echo str_replace_many('?',array('Jane','banana'),'? is eating a ?.');

?>



prints: "Jane is eating a banana."

15-Jan-2007 09:42


Before spending hours searching your application why it makes UTF-8 encoding into some malformed something with str_replace, make sure you save your PHP file in UTF-8 (NO BOM).



This was at least one of my problems.

Boris DOT Christ AT laposte DOT net
27-Nov-2006 09:32


I create a little function to transform (to example) "User@example.net" in "user AT example DOT net" and conversely.



<?php

function code_mail($email) {

    if(preg_match('`^.+@.+\..{1,5}$`', $email)) { //email format

        $email = str_replace('.', ' DOT ', $email); //replace . by dot

        $email = str_replace('@', ' AT ', $email); //replace @ by at

        return $email;

    }        

    else { //not email format

        return false;

    }

}

function decode_mail($email) { //on décode...

    $email = str_replace(' DOT ', '.', $email); //replace dot by .

    $email = str_replace(' AT ', '@', $email); //replace at by @

    return $email;

} 

?>

Ota L.
11-Nov-2006 11:14


This simple function may be usefull to convert czech text from cp-1250 encoding to iso-8859-2 (convert S, T and Z with caron).



I use it because mbstring does not support windows-1250 (i.e. mb_convert_encoding(win2iso($text), "utf-8", "iso-8859-2");).



<?php

function win2iso($text)

{

    $win = array ("\x9A", "\x9D", "\x9E", "\x8A", "\x8D", "\x8E");

    $iso = array ("\xB9", "\xBB", "\xBE", "\xA9", "\xAB", "\xAE");

    return str_replace($win, $iso, $text);

}

?>

webmaster at unitedscripters dot com
30-Jul-2006 01:50


You may have decided to save in a non ANSI format a file so that a few fancy chars that you plan to replace can be viewed by your human eyes too (aren't all those empty rectangles a curse?).



Fine. All works just fine in the file, and all the replacements occur as intended.

You make a class out of those codes.



Then you put this non ANSI encoded file in your includes folder. Isn't it a nice class?



Well, don't call in such class as an include into another file, if the latter is ANSI : the char look up tables will NOT match, and the latter file (say the caller) will (I guess) feed ANSI codes to the included file (say the called) and you will spend a day wondering why the class methods work 100% well when you perform replacements directly from within the called, and yet the very same methods, even with the very same copied-and-pasted examples, fail miserably when performed from within the caller.

A very "stimulating" debugging!



I just came out from a night spent on this. I just forgot the included class file wasn't saved as an ANSI.



<?php

class regexp{

//blah blah...

var $toascii=array(    'Ã' => 'A');

//blah blah

function toascii_replace($input, $addSlashes=0){

return (!$addSlashes)? strtr($input, $this->toascii): addslashes( strtr($input, $this->toascii) );

}

}



$r=new regexp();

$input='Ã';

print $r->toascii_replace($input);//prints A

?>



Now save that class (remove the print statement too) in a format that isn't ANSI, say UTF-8.

Then do:



<?php

include_once('regexp.php');



$r=new regexp();

$input='Ã';

print $r->toascii_replace($input);//prints... Ã

?>



IDENTICAL codes, different results. 



note: the class uses strtr but would happen with all replacing oriented functions, and I can pester all the documentations. Maybe I worked out the wrong reason, but the behaviour occurs.

matt wheaton
30-Mar-2006 03:40


As an effort to remove those Word copy and paste smart quotes, I've found that this works with UTF8 encoded strings (where $text in the following example is UTF8). Also the elipsis and em and en dashes are replaced.



There is an "invisible" character after the â€ for the right side double smart quote that doesn't seem to display here. It is chr(157).



<?php

  $find[] = 'â€œ';  // left side double smart quote

  $find[] = 'â€';  // right side double smart quote

  $find[] = 'â€˜';  // left side single smart quote

  $find[] = 'â€™';  // right side single smart quote

  $find[] = 'â€¦';  // elipsis

  $find[] = 'â€”';  // em dash

  $find[] = 'â€“';  // en dash



  $replace[] = '"';

  $replace[] = '"';

  $replace[] = "'";

  $replace[] = "'";

  $replace[] = "...";

  $replace[] = "-";

  $replace[] = "-";



  $text = str_replace($find, $replace, $text);

?>

hermes at andycostell dot com
11-Dec-2004 07:57


A simple function to take out the double line breaks "%0D%0A" from a string made from text being wrapped in a textarea and turn them into single line breaks. 



<?php

function remove_extra_linebreaks($string) {

      $new_string=urlencode ($string);

    $new_string=ereg_replace("%0D", " ", $new_string);

    $new_string=urldecode  ($new_string);

  return $new_string;

}

?>



I use it when taking text from a textarea with wrap="hard" that I'm emailing out on the next page, for instance. Otherwise there's an extra empty line between each line in the emailed text, which looks nasty!

David Gimeno i Ayuso (info at sima-pc dot com)
25-Aug-2003 01:12


Take care with order when using arrays in replacement.





<?php


$match=array("ONE","TWO","THREE");


$replace=array("TWO WORDS","MANY LETTERS","OTHER IDEAS");


$sample="ONE SAMPLE";


echo str_replace($match,$replace,$sample);


?>





It will show: "MANY LETTERS WORDS SAMPLE"





That is, after replacing "ONE" with "TWO WORDS", process follows with next array item and it changes "TWO" with "MANY LETTERS".

imho at auspantheon dot com
27-Jun-2003 11:08


An excellent way of making sure your pages don't contain "invalid entities", IE. Valid HTML is using the following function.





Most forum packages / extensions provide output containing the symbol &, we don't want this!





<?php


function include_safe ($file)


{


    $array = file($file);





    foreach ($array as $line) {


    print str_replace('&', '&amp;', $line);


    }


}


?>





The same technique could also be used in conjuntion with htmlmspecialchars or htmlentities.

13-Jun-2003 10:59


Having a string for $search and an array for $replace won't work. This is mentioned on the preg_replace() page where it's described as not making sense, but not here.





But one could interpret such a situation and hence implement str_replace so that a signature of (string, array, string) or even (string, array, array) would "work". The result of





<?php


$search = '*';


$replace = range(1,20);


$subject = '{*}';


$result = str_replace($search, $replace, $subject);


?>





could be an array of elements "{1}", "{2}", "{3}" .... In other words it would have the same effect as





<?php


$search = '*';


$replace = range(1,20);


$subject = '{*}';


$result = array();


foreach($replace as $r) {


    $result[] = str_replace($search, $r, $subject);


}


?>





I leave more elaborate applications to your imagination :)





The result of a str_replace(string,array,array) would therefore presumably be an array of arrays, with its dimensions indexed by the two arrays passed in. But then there's the question of which is the first dimension and which is the second.

rit at NOSPAMchatol dot com
07-Jan-2003 12:32


I was trying to remove newlines from a textarea input (result of failed submission of parent form - JS verification not possible in this situation) to send back to the textarea via javascript (due to the fact that setting the value in the textarea tag does not work) and had a hard time figuring it out. 





If anyone cares, try replacing: "%0D%0A" which is how I found it(changed my POST method to GET) and tracked it down in the address bar of my browser. Hope this helps, I sure wish someone else had posted it earlier!

art at zollerwagner dot com
09-Oct-2002 10:26


To use one or two arrays in str_replace, 





this appears to be the correct format:


<?php


str_replace(array('1st_current_needle_element', '2nd', '3rd'), array('1st_new_needle_element', '2nd', '3rd'), $haystack)


?>





Example of a single array, which simply removes the characters in the first array:


<?php


$text=str_replace(array('<', '>', '\\', '/', '='), "", $text);


?>





This will delete the chars: < > \ / =





It could also be done by first defining the array(s), like this:


<?php


$targetChars=array('<', '>', '\\', '/', '=');


$text=str_replace($targetChars, "", $text);


?>

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